Introduction

The cottage was built in 1900 one of a pair and was originally a farm labourers cottage. The garden is small but big enough for our needs. There is a small garden at the front to the side of the drive and bordered by a lovely low flint wall with semi circular bricks topping the wall. A similar wall is found on the boundary siding the driveway. Between our garden and our neighbouring half is a low picket fence.
The kitchen door leads through an ugly but invaluable lean to onto a narrow terrace bordered by picket fencing and gate down three steps onto a small area of lawn to the right and flower bed to the left. This rear garden has single storey brick walls on either side topped by trellis. Along the small winding brick path takes you to another gate in more picket fencing and two steps down to the main part of the garden. Further winding brick path arrives at the last 2 steps down to a paved working area with two green houses to the right behind which is found a tiny pond and garden, two coal frames and a potting bench. To the left of the steps is a huge composting area and shed. The rear garden is an odd wedge shaped area widening towards the bottom which has a Leyland cypruss hedge maintained about 3 meters high on mutual agreement with the neighbour beyond.
At one time the rear garden was used as a coal merchants yard and his lorry was driven down the side of the house, not possible any more, the cottage was extended leaving a very narrow pedestrian access to the rear. Fortunately very little coal deposit has been found in the garden, which with years of gardening probably helped by the pig that used to be kept at the bottom plus night soil has now resulted in a deep rich loam. Although there are still some areas of the clay subsoil a little more apparent particularly in long dry summers.